Around the House: Specialty wood products more readily available

Saturday

Oct 6, 2018 at 1:58 PM

Home improvement shows on cable television are very popular these days for homeowners contemplating projects. Many times, décor themes revert to distressed and natural wood looks in rehabbing older homes. Specialty wood products have seen a resurgence in popularity as homeowners have grown weary of painted finger-joint mouldings and orange-peel drywall texture. Many homeowners want a unique room or secret garden area that acts as their place of tranquility, and no other product calms the senses as much as beautiful, natural wood.

In Lakeland, there is a wholesale supplier to local lumberyards that specializes in providing unique wood alternatives for homes throughout the state. Cedar Creek, a subsidiary of BlueLinx Corporation, has seen a huge resurgence in specialty woods over the last five years. While other companies gravitated to synthetic woods that look like wood, Cedar Creek invested in stocking and producing real natural wood products.

As its name indicates, cedar is a big portion of their product line. Cedar Creek offers a multitude of cedar boards ranging from 1-by-4 to 1-by-12, and the company also has available certain sidings that are hard to find. Homeowners trying to match the real natural wood products in their older home find Cedar Creek to be a great resource.

Cedar Creek’s biggest advantage in their cedar offering is what they can do with beams, posts, corbels and specialty patterns in their custom wood shop. Pergolas are extremely popular in Lake and Sumter Counties as active adults create a secret garden or special outdoor space for entertaining. Cedar Creek can manufacture beams up to 12-by-16 inches in dimension, and as long as 8 to 32 feet. Plus, in their custom shop they can produce specialty corbels, brackets and roofing member tails to add unique beauty to the pergola. This takes away the expense and difficult job of producing beams like this on the jobsite.

Homeowners across the state are rediscovering the uniqueness and beauty of real cypress wood. Cypress is very rot resistant and its natural aging is a look that many homeowners like in their new construction projects. Cedar Creek has available a wide variety of cypress products, including hard-to-find sidings. Plus, they can mill special widths and types. Rough sawn and pecky cypress are available. However, each year cypress is harder to source.

Cedar Creek’s product lines also offer hard-to-find redwood and hardwood boards, which are used more in high-end projects and matching requirements. Their ability to manufacture and modify these products gives them a unique supply position. Needless to say, redwood and many hardwoods are very expensive because of the environmental limitations in logging.

Distressed woods, which mimic older barn wood, are extremely popular but hard to find and even harder to distress on the jobsite. Hewn is now offering a full line of distressed wood in spruce and white oak, which is simply beautiful. Even though the wood is brand new it looks as if it has been part of an old barn for 30 years. Hewn has done a great job in offering a multitude of pre-finished colors in widths from one-inch to four-inches, and lengths from 8-feet to 16-feet. These products are available in interior and exterior applications and are great for accent walls.

The natural beauty of specialty wood is available for most construction projects, and Cedar Creek’s ability to manufacturer the specific types and sizes opens the possibility for any project. One cautionary note — these products are pricey, so measure three times before you cut. Your local lumberyard can give you more information on these and other available specialty wood product lines.

Don Magruder is the CEO of Ro-Mac Lumber & Supply Inc. He is also the host of the Around the House radio show heard every Monday at noon on My790AM WLBE in Leesburg.

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